Summer Break and Our Brains are Nowhere to be Found

Miss Language: *hiccup* I have no idea why I have hiccups.


Miss Dog Lover: Because you love me. Or because you don't eat enough sugar.


Miss Language: *hiccup*

Look What the Mailman Brought!!!

My dear online friend over at The Laundry Pile and I have a longstanding use of yellow as the Color of Hope.


So at lunch I heard a mailtruck rumbling up our gravel driveway. I left my plate of reheated spaghetti and met him and was glad to see a package. I was gladder to see Comfy Denim's (as I first knew her) return address. And when I opened it, Oh, my. What a lot of yellow goodness was crammed in that box. A box full of sunshine and hope. :)  Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

Seen in the Antique Store :)

How Would You Like to Floss This?

Homeschooling continuously teaches me that my children pick up my strengths and weaknesses and oh so often magnify them.


I have had an interest in whales and all things whale related since I was about 8. So my children tend to hear random bits of whale trivia from time to time. And when this trivia blends with the flotsam and jetsam in their minds, you never know what will surface.


So. In geometry the other day, Mr Music had to classify triangles as obtuse, acute, or right. And then he had to classify them as scalene, isosceles, or equilateral. And Mr Music also studies Latin, so word derivations float around on the surface of his brain at all times. 


So. I was unsurprised when he looked blankly at the page for a moment or two and then said. "Sorry. The 'scalene' confused me for a minute. I got to wondering if /scalene/ is related to /baleen/ and then thinking about maybe it was more like the /scales/ of fish."

And then, of course, as all good homeschoolers know, we had to have a brief discourse on how baleen works, anyhow, and what things it was used for. I have always felt they must have been able to produce a great many corset stays from one whale's baleen. And then, Mr Music classified the triangles. But I only credited the worksheet in the "math" part of his daily log, not also under "history," "languages," and "science."

(not)Cheery News for Those Feeling Blue

I was clicking across some sites and just briefly saw an ad, I don't know exactly med it was for, but somehow I found the ad a combination of depressing and hysterical. It said something like: You're not alone... One in three patients fail on their first antidepressant taken..."


Cheery, eh? Here you are, depressed and whatnot, and so you try a med. And YOU fail at it. Not it fails you, but you are so worthless you even fail at this. 


Anyhow. I googled trying to find what med it might be and the closest I could get was an article talking about alternatives to antidepressants. I was underimpressed with TCM, TransCranialMagnetism where "strong magnets can be pressed onto a patient's head to influence the brain's circuitry." Does the thought of looking like Frankenstein and being able to attach your family's calendar directly to your head with magnets sound cheering? Maybe it's just me, but I am sticking with dark chocolate, the best mood elevator I know of.